In the face of what seems like a concerted effort to destroy the only planet that can sustain us, critique is an important tool. It is in this vein that most scholars have approached environmental crisis. While there are numerous texts that chronicle contemporary issues in environmental ills, there are relatively few that explore the possibilities and practices which work to avoid collapse and build alternatives. The keyword of this book’s full title, 'Perma/Culture,' alludes to and plays on 'permaculture', an international movement that can provide a framework for navigating the multiple 'other worlds' within a broader environmental ethic. This edited collection brings together essays from an international team of scholars, activists and artists in order to provide a critical introduction to the ethico-political and cultural elements around the concept of ‘Perma/Culture’. These multidisciplinary essays include a varied landscape of sites and practices, from readings from ecotopian literature to an analysis of the intersection of agriculture and art; from an account of the rewards and difficulties of building community in Transition Towns to a description of the ad hoc infrastructure of a fracking protest camp. Offering a number of constructive models in response to current global environmental challenges, this book makes a significant contribution to current eco-literature and will be of great interest to students and researchers in Environmental Humanities, Environmental Studies, Sociology and Communication Studies.
There is something deeply problematic about the ways that Jews, particularly in America, talk about “Jewish identity” as a desired outcome of Jewish education. For many, the idea that the purpose of Jewish education is to strengthen Jewish identity is so obvious that it hardly seems worth disputing—and the only important question is which kinds of Jewish education do that work more effectively or more efficiently. But what does it mean to “strengthen Jewish identity”? Why do Jewish educators, policy-makers and philanthropists talk that way? What do they assume, about Jewish education or about Jewish identity, when they use formulations like “strengthen Jewish identity”? And what are the costs of doing so? This volume, the first collection to examine critically the relationship between Jewish education and Jewish identity, makes two important interventions. First, it offers a critical assessment of the relationship between education and identity, arguing that the reification of identity has hampered much educational creativity in the pursuit of this goal, and that the nearly ubiquitous employment of the term obscures significant questions about what Jewish education is and ought to be. Second, this volume offers thoughtful responses that are not merely synonymous replacements for “identity,” suggesting new possibilities for how to think about the purposes and desired outcomes of Jewish education, potentially contributing to any number of new conversations about the relationship between Jewish education and Jewish life.
Imagination in Inquiry: A Philosophical Model and Its Applications investigates the nature, kinds, component elements, functions, scope, and uses of the imagination involved in inquiry. It further discusses how these kinds and functions vary and interact depending on the context of inquiries carried out in philosophy and its branches—from the philosophy of science and the philosophy of technology to ethics, sociopolitical philosophy, and aesthetics—and institutions like science, technology, art, and education. Using a homeostatic model, A. Pablo Iannone advances a conception of the imagination as a disposition to search for answers to various types of problems, abstract or concrete, theoretical or practical faced in inquiry. The book treats this as a working characterization, though it develops progressively clearer, more precise, and less ambiguous meanings. All along, the primary concern of the author—as well as of contributors Alejandra Iannone and Rocci Luppicini—is with the moral, aesthetic, logical, communicative, scientific, technological, artistic, literary, and philosophical uses and roles of the imagination. The book’s primary focus is not just on such things as the capacity to generate mental images, but especially on the ability to discover and create, anticipate and envision, entertain and manage.
Counterinsurgency, the violent suppression of armed insurrection, is among the dominant kinds of war in contemporary world politics. Often linked to protecting populations and reconstructing legitimate political orders, it has appeared in other times and places in very different forms – and has taken on a range of politics in doing so. How did it arrive at its present form, and what generated these others, along the way? Spanning several centuries and four detailed case studies, The Counterinsurgent Imagination unpacks and explores this intellectual history through counterinsurgency manuals. These military theoretical and instructional texts, and the practitioners who produced them, made counterinsurgency possible in practice. By interrogating these processes, this book explains how counter-insurrectionary war eventually took on its late twentieth and early twenty-first century forms. It shows how and why counterinsurgent ideas persist, despite recurring failures.
“We desperately need the dynamic revolution in education that this book offers us, reflecting the new ways of thinking and being on this planet that will permit us to live in peace as a global family even through massive climate changes. Read it and put these ideas into practice as quickly as possible in any ways you can!” —Elisabet Sahtouris, Evolutionary biologist and futurist, author of EarthDance: Living Systems in Evolution
Within a few short years, research on counterfactual thinking has mushroomed, establishing itself as one of the signature domains within social psychology. Counterfactuals are thoughts of what might have been, of possible past outcomes that could have taken place. Counterfactuals and their implications for perceptions of time and causality have long fascinated philosophers, but only recently have social psychologists made them the focus of empirical inquiry. Following the publication of Kahneman and Tversky's seminal 1982 paper, a burgeoning literature has implicated counterfactual thinking in such diverse judgments as causation, blame, prediction, and suspicion; in such emotional experiences as regret, elation, disappointment and sympathy; and also in achievement, coping, and intergroup bias. But how do such thoughts come about? What are the mechanisms underlying their operation? How do their consequences benefit, or harm, the individual? When is their generation spontaneous and when is it strategic? This volume explores these and other numerous issues by assembling contributions from the most active researchers in this rapidly expanding subfield of social psychology. Each chapter provides an in-depth exploration of a particular conceptual facet of counterfactual thinking, reviewing previous work, describing ongoing, cutting-edge research, and offering novel theoretical analysis and synthesis. As the first edited volume to bring together the many threads of research and theory on counterfactual thinking, this book promises to be a source of insight and inspiration for years to come.
Challenging dominant discourses in neoliberal marketized societies about working with disconnected young people, this book argues that alternative, radical approaches to formal and informal education are necessary to challenge repressive practices, and to help build a more equal, socially-just society.
What's behind every healed patient? Critical thinking! And what book best equips you to master the critical thinking skills needed for success on the NCLEX examination and in professional nursing practice? Alfaro's Critical Thinking, Clinical Reasoning, and Clinical Judgment, 6th Edition! With a motivational style and insightful "how-to" approach, this unique textbook draws upon real-life scenarios and evidence-based strategies as it guides you in learning to think critically in clinically meaningful ways. The new edition features a more streamlined, full-color design, and expanded coverage on some of key trends, including: interdisciplinary care teams, competency-based education, the IOM's Leading Health Indicators, legal considerations, the effects of the Affordable Care Act, and much more. If you want to truly succeed in nursing practice today and be thinking-oriented rather than task-oriented, then look no further than this one-of-a-kind textbook. - Simple approach and motivational writing style include vivid examples, memorable anecdotes, and real case scenarios to make content come alive. - Practical strategies to promote critical thinking, clinical reasoning, and clinical judgment are incorporated along with supporting evidence as to why the strategies work. - Focus on application (or "how to") and inclusion of supporting rationales (theory) make difficult concepts easy to learn. - Critical thinking indicators feature evidence-based descriptions from the author of behaviors that promote critical thinking in nursing practice. - Highlighted features and sections — such as Chapter at a Glance, Pre-Chapter Self-Tests, Guiding Principles, Critical Moments, Other Perspectives, Think-Pair-Share, Help Me Out cartoons, real-life clinical scenarios, key points, critical thinking exercises, and more — promote independent learning. - UNIQUE! Brain-based learning principles utilize strategies that challenge the mind and are incorporated throughout the text. - Timely coverage includes topical issues, such as: problem-focused versus outcome-focused thinking, prioritizing, developing a culture of safety, healthy work environments, expanding roles related to diagnosis and management, applying delegation principles, evidence-based practice, improving grades and passing tests the first time, NCLEX preparation, ensuring documentation reflects critical thinking, communication and interpersonal skills, strategies for common workplace challenges, and more. - Inclusion of ethics- and standards-based professional practice reflects today's professional climate which demands increasing accountability. - Incorporation of cultural, spiritual, and lifespan content along with the nurse's role in hospitals, communities, and long-term care settings presents a broad approach to critical thinking. - Discussion of Tanner and Benner's most recent work on what the research says about critical thinking and clinical judgment in nursing keeps readers up to date on the evidence-based side of practice. - Coverage of IOM, QSEN, and other patient safety standards also keeps readers up to date on safe and effective nursing care.